


He runs with her again - sort of like old times.

by timeisdisintegrating



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Rescue, saving river song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-03 03:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5275448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeisdisintegrating/pseuds/timeisdisintegrating
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River Rescue Fanfiction</p>
<p>“Am I on to something, Sexy?” He murmured. <br/>The walls lit up and his mind raced. If the T.A.R.D.I.S. thought it was possible…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There was something familiar about it all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my idea on how the Doctor could save River! This takes place right after Death in Heaven in season 8, after they've destroyed the Cybermen and think they've gotten rid of Missy. I hope you like it!

**Chapter 1**

There was something familiar about it all. 

His mind shifted through the events of the last few days. He and Clara had defeated Missy and her legions of Cybermen. Somehow, he knew she would be back. Death seemed to have little effect on Missy. She always seemed to pop back up at the most inopportune moments. Still, something about the last few days had been nagging in the back of his mind. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The Doctor sighed. He was lying on his bed, fully clothed, waiting for Clara to call for their next adventure. Frankly, he was bored out of his mind. She would need more time, he knew, to adjust to Danny being gone, but during that time he had little to do. Adventures weren’t as fun without a wide-eyed companion alongside you. 

_Speaking of companions_ , he thought as he flipped to face the other way on his bed. He reached out to the bedside table and grabbed a framed photo. He pulled the picture into view. River Song stared back out at him. Her eyes were gleaming with usual mischief as she gave his past regeneration bunny ears, much to his unawareness. He smiled at the image but then the smile faded. His poor wife. 

He shoved the picture away from him when the ghost of the idea he had been wrestling with earlier finally solidified in his mind.

_All those people uploaded into a …_

He jolted upright.

_That was it! An interface! Missy had said that she had been uploading lives and minds into that interface. The Library’s couldn’t be that different from what Missy had used – and if she could download the minds into Cybermen then…_

His eyebrows twitched.

The T.A.R.D.I.S. suddenly hummed. He stared at the walls around him.

“Am I on to something, Sexy?” He murmured. The walls lit up and his mind raced. If the T.A.R.D.I.S. thought it was possible…

A sharp voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Would you please not call her that when I am here… it’s weird.”

He gasped as Clara stepped into the doorway.

“I didn’t think you were here.” He snapped. She chuckled and he bristled, hopping up from the bed and pushing passed her into the corridor. “And it’s not weird.” 

“Oh, stop it. I’m just teasing you.”

He stopped and looked back at her – eyes narrowing, then continued down the hallway, his mind already returning to earlier thoughts and forgetting the annoying small person standing in his doorway.

“Where are you headed? The T.A.R.D.I.S. landed in my living room so I figured you were expecting me,” Clara called after him. Hearing no response, she strode off after him towards the console room.

She found him with his back to the console, rubbing his forehead. “Mind telling me what’s going on?” said Clara, arms crossed in front of her, tapping one foot. He looked down to her tiny form for a moment but she could see he wasn’t focused on her. 

“River.” 

“Your wife? The one with the hair?” Clara said as she made a wide gesture around her head.

“There’s only one wife, numpty,” he said as he leaned against the console and frowned. 

“Oi! I told you to stop calling me that.” He shrugged and she shook her head in annoyance but continued on, “well, what about her?”

“I might have a way to save her.”

Clara cocked her head to the side and he saw the concern flash in her eyes.

“No, no, think about it.” He stood up and advanced towards her. “Missy.”

“What about her, Doctor?”

“She smashed all those minds – lives,” he waved his hands around, “– into that interface!”

“Yes…” Clara said slowly. She backed away a step or two. He seemed slightly crazed.

“So, that is basically what River is in.”

“So you think you can get her out – just like Missy downloaded all those people into the Cybermen?”

The Doctor eyes widened. “I’ve got to get a look at that interface.” 

Clara smiled despite herself. She hadn’t seen him this enthusiastic in a long time – not since he had regenerated. Nowadays, he tended to play his grumpy Scottish side a little too much. She was glad to see a little change in his demeanor.


	2. I promise I haven’t left you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor works out his idea...

**Chapter 2**

“I thought this place was infested with Vasa… Vashta Ne…” Clara struggled for words, looking to him to fill in the blank as she approached the main console.

“Vashta Nerada, pudding brain.”

“Excuse you – I’m so sorry I don’t have the vocabulary of a Time Lord.” Clara replied in an exasperated tone. That elicited no response from The Doctor as he started to put in coordinates.

As he moved around the console, his eyes flicked up to meet hers. The expression he saw was skeptical to say the least. Stopping, he turned to face her and spread out his hands.

“I just need about five minutes. I need to know that I could effectively download her. Then, hypothetically, if I can retrieve her body, I could reload her mind into it. Hopefully.”

He ran one hand through his grey hair as he thought – a motion reminiscent of his last regeneration, before renewing his business at the console.

“Go make yourself useful and find this,” he says. Clara’s eyes narrowed but she came up to join him near the console. Pulling the screen around, he pointed to the small device pictured, eyebrows raised in expectation. Clara huffed and receded from the room in order to collect the device. “It’s in Storage Room 3,” he calls after her. He sees her wave and disappear from the doorway.

After she had gone, The Doctor pulled up his hologram of River. He chatted to her quietly – hashing out a plan that may or may not work. The hologram stood unmoving and silent. His eyebrows pulled together as he turned slowly to stare at the hologram. She was as beautiful as ever, but the hollow projection of his wife held no spark of life. He approached the image slowly till he was standing face to face with her. 

“I’m going to get you back, River. Just you watch – I promise I haven’t left you.”

His eyes misted a bit and he gruffly rubbed his eyes and turned away. He turned the hologram off and pushed the final button to start the T.A.R.D.I.S. towards the Library. He peeked around the console to ensure Clara was still wandering the hallways. No use in letting Clara know that he wasn’t a solely grumpy and bitter Scottish Time Lord.

* * * * *

_Clara hurries behind the Doctor down a corridor that descends into the darkness under Trenzalore. A million questions are bouncing around in her head and finally one slips out._

_“So how come I met your dead wife?”_

_He glances back at her for a moment before continuing down the corridor, holding his torch higher to see. “Oh well, you know how it is when you lose someone close to you. I sort of made a backup,” he replies off-handedly. She can hear the falseness in his tone and purses her lips. She almost speaks her next question when she hears a voice behind her._

_“I died saving him.”_

_Clara glances back, startled, to find River Song standing in the middle of the quickly darkening passage. River smiles sadly._

_“In return, he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn’t even say goodbye. He doesn’t like endings.”_

_Clara stares into the woman’s eyes, hesitating for a moment in following the Doctor. Suddenly, one of the Whisper Men bursts through River’s image. She turns and runs…_

* * * * *

Clara approached the console room quietly. She had heard The Doctor’s voice as she came nearer the console room after finding the device he asked for. As she peeked around the doorframe, she saw the Doctor facing a hologram of River. She was unstartled by the presence of the hologram. He had often, when he thought she wasn’t looking, brought up the image of his wife. It frankly worried her a bit. She knew he wasn’t going to give up on figuring out ways to rescue River. This was his best idea so far, and the thought of failure worried her even more. Who knows what kind of mind space he would fall into should his plan not work. He wasn’t was as invincible as he liked to believe in this body – or at least liked to try and make her think.

The Doctor peeked around the console and she hurriedly pulled herself from view. She gave it a few seconds and then came bustling in as the T.A.R.D.I.S. groaned and shook. He never did like to listen to River’s instructions to stop that horrid noise.

“We’re here,” he declared. Clara gave him the eyebrow and skipped to the door. Excited to see this giant library, she had just grasped the door handle to open it when The Doctor shouted “NO!”

“What?!” asked Clara – alarmed, stepping back quickly from the door.

“You don’t just casually open a door to a world infested by Vashta Nerada without scanning for their whereabouts first!” He scolded her. “Imagine if one had happened to be right outside the door! You would have been dead the moment you stepped outside the door. Just like that!” 

He snapped his fingers in front of her face and she batted his hand away angrily.

“Well, maybe you should have told me a little background information before we landed instead of chatting to your dear old wife!” She stopped quickly, throwing her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened while his eyes narrowed. He has seemed on edge ever since he had brought the idea up to save River. That touchiness ended up coming out in scolding towards her, which she didn't appreciate, but she definitely had not meant to call him out on it in that way.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he muttered, stalking away from her. He pulled the monitor on the console around to face him and stared at speckling of red dots in the rooms of the Library. Satisfied by the lack of dots in the vicinity of the T.A.R.D.I.S., he muttered something to himself.

“What was that?”

He looked up at her, his eyebrows pulled together in a look of annoyance. “ _I said:_ They must be hiding in the darker places of the Library right now while the sun is out. There haven’t been any visitors in years – so they have no reason to be roaming.”

He had piqued her interest now, he could see that. Nothing interested Clara more than new alien species. “Can daylight stop them?” 

“No, but it usually slows them down,” he replied.

“So if we can make it to the database computer in the main lobby…?” She walked back up to the console to look at the screen which holds the layout of the room as he pointed to the area they needed to get to.

“Then, we would have about 5 minutes tops before they notice us and start swarming towards our position.”

Clara’s eyes widened, but he could see she was still captivated with the idea of this new adventure. _She is getting too indifferent to danger_ , The Doctor thought grimly. She seemed more and more reckless after the loss of Danny – and he didn’t think it was coincidence either.

Her words interrupted his train of thought - “Will they not attack the T.A.R.D.I.S.?”

“Force field plus a field up to make us undetectable from afar,” he stated, patting the console and giving her a small smile. “But, she’s not invisible and if they enter the room they will be able to see her – and us.”

“Would they hurt her?”

“Eh, they can’t get inside – or eat her – but they could knock the old girl around a bit.”

“Would they eat us?” Clara asked – wide-eyed again. 

He looked her dead in the eye. “You’ll be eaten alive in less than two seconds. Only your bones will be spared.” The Doctor grimaced at the memories and decided to spare Clara from any more details, _though maybe she could use some more scaring_ , he thought.

Clara watched his expression, clearly annoyed again. He sometimes tended to withhold information and frankly it irked her, especially when her life was clearly in danger.

“And you didn’t bother to tell me this before we landed?”

The Doctor turned away from her, poking at one of the screens and having the decency to not look her in the eye. “Well, I didn’t think you’d bloody run up to the door and open it.” He muttered grumpily.


	3. The timer hits zero.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor retrieves River's body...

_“This is not a joke – stop this now – this is going to kill you!”_

_He struggles against the handcuffs that bind him across the room. “I have a chance, you don’t have any!” he shouts._

_She yells at him, cutting him off and refusing to let him say more. “You wouldn’t have a chance and neither do I!”_

_She looks at him and dares him to contradict her. He is silent but continues to pull against the handcuffs to get near her._ Always trying to save everyone, _she thinks fondly._

_She breathes in a shaky breath and composes her face. No need to let him know she is scared. She decides to talk strategy instead. “I’m timing it for the end of the countdown - there will be a blip in the command flow, that way it should improve our chances of a clean download.”_

_He is not distracted at all. His eyes plead with her as she tries to act nonchalant, but she knows he can see through the façade. “River, please, no,” he begs again, but she has already made her choice._

_“Funny thing is, this means you’ve always known how I was going to die. All the time we’ve been together, you knew I was coming here.”_

_He is lost. This woman he knows nothing of, is sacrificing herself for him. She means something, possibly everything, to future him and now he can do nothing but watch her die. She continues to talk but he can only stare at her helplessly and hope that she will change her mind…_

* * * * *

The Doctor stood with his hand on the door handle. Clara was ready – standing just behind him. He glanced back at her and nodded.

“We will have approximately five minutes when we cross the threshold of the T.A.R.D.I.S. – at most.” Clara nodded. She held the small contraption in her hand that the Doctor had made her retrieve. Roughly the size of a vortex manipulator, the screen showed any life signs in the vicinity and their movement. When he had handed it back to her after making some adjustments, he had deemed it a “Life Sign Picker-Upper.” She grinned as she attached it on to her wrist, but the amusement only lasted a second. All fun had faded as the Doctor started a countdown.

“3…2…1…” 

He swung open the T.A.R.D.I.S. doors and ran.

The room was exactly as he had left it all those years ago. The familiarity spurred the memories to come flooding back. He shook his head as he rushed to the main computer database, trying to clear his mind. Distraction was not the way to get his wife back.

Clara caught up to him, all the while constantly checking her wrist for life signs nearby. The Doctor turned on the computer and typed in “River Song”. One hit showed up that confirmed that she was indeed still inside the Library.

“She’s still there,” he breathed, taking a moment to thank the universe. It had been centuries upon centuries since he had been here. Who knew if something had gone wrong during all that time. He should have come sooner. Clara’s voice brings him out of his own head.

“Hey Doctor, that’s great news and all, but can you please hurry up and check if we can even get her out? Time’s ticking away.” He shoots her a glare but pauses when he sees her eyes widen.

“Doctor, one just entered the room at the far back,” she whispered hurriedly.

“There’s no need to whisper, Clara. If it’s in the room – it can see us. It definitely knows we are here.” The Doctor glanced back at the darkened shadow near the far door. 

Clara pushed him back towards the computer. “Fine. HURRY.” 

The Doctor gritted his teeth and started typing and shifting through files. 

“DOCTOR!”

“I’m trying, Clara!”

His fingers flew across the keyboard. Clara looked up nervously as the door area continued to darken and shift towards them. She glanced at her wrist only to find another life sign at the door to their right. She watched in horror as red dots started to appear quicker around the entrances.

“Doctor, they are starting to come through all the entrances!”

“I’ve almost got it. I’m going to start the download and while it’s processing we can go and grab her body.”

“Well, make it quick!”

The Doctor hit a final key and grabbed Clara’s hand. “Run through the light spots!”

They reached the T.A.R.D.I.S. just in time and got inside the door. The Doctor slammed the door and ran to the console screen. Red dots had creeped in around the T.A.R.D.I.S.. He stared intently at the dots. They started to slowly back away.

“They know they can’t eat the T.A.R.D.I.S., I guess?” asked Clara nervously.

The Doctor looked at her. “They might go for reinforcements, or they may back off. It’s no doubt been a long time since they’ve encountered anyone on this planet. It might be much harder to get her body to the database transport system.”

“Do what?” Clara inquired.

“We have to get her body here for the download to work. My plan is to fly in at the exact moment that the surge hits her body so that her mind is gone but her body is still intact. Then we can redownload her mind into her old body. Too early and the surge won’t work to save the Library. Too late, and she’ll be too damaged.” 

Clara raised one eyebrow. “That sounds complicated. I trust you know what you are doing.”

“No.”

Clara turned to face him. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t know that this will work. I don’t know what I’m doing.” He placed his fingers on his temples. “But, I think we have a chance at this. We just have to time it perfectly and it should work. It’s the best solution I have that could actually work. I can’t continue to wait around. You heard what she said to you on Trenzalore. I can’t leave her any longer. She doesn’t deserve it. She hates being confined. This is one prison that I can’t visit her in.” He ran a hand through his grey hair. “It could mess up the timeline if we don’t do it right but I’m willing to risk it.”

Clara gave him a small smile.

“Isn’t that how it always is?”

* * * * * 

_“There’s nothing you can do,” she whispers to him. He struggles against the handcuffs that hold him firmly across the room. “Let me do this!” he demands. He looks at her – no, pleads with her. But she will have none of it._

_‘If you die here, it’ll mean I’ve never met you.” She locks her gaze with his and her eyes beseech him to understand – to let her do this without a fight. She looks back down at her work and continues to connect wires as he struggles more. “Time can be rewritten,” he begs._

_She looks up from the wires. Her eyes harden and she looks him dead in the eye. “Not those times, not one line. Don’t you dare!”_

_She sees the despair in his eyes and softens. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s not over for you. You’ll see me again. You’ve got all of that to come. You and me. Time and space. You watch us run!”_

_She smiles despite the tears that are starting to form in her eyes. She must be strong for him. He must know that she is not afraid to die for him. If this is how it ends, she will go gladly. As long as she preserves her past and his future, they will be together. He can’t die here. It’s unthinkable. She goes back to work…_

* * * * *

The Doctor glances at Clara. “Are you sure you want to help me?” He wants to give her a way out – he saw the fear in her eyes when the shadows were closing in. _It was good for her,_ he thought, _maybe I could keep her safe that way._

She looks at him quizzically. “Shouldn’t you have asked me that before we ran into a room of person eating shadows?” She laughs at him even though she knows he is serious. “Of course I want to be part of a daring, possibly death defying, adventure to bring your wife back from the dead. Who do you think I am?” 

She refuses to let him know that the thought is terrifying to her. Not because of her personal safety, but because of the thought of failing. Of it going terribly wrong and him losing River forever.

He snorts. “Just giving you the option,” he says. He walks back to the console and types in some more coordinates. She watches him closely. There is a focus in him now. A control in his movements his last body seemed to lack. The determination is clearer in this older body.

“So, what is the plan now?” Clara asks as he pushes another button. He glances up at her. “I’m going to grab her body as she kills herself, essentially. If I time it correctly – which I believe I have, then the T.A.R.D.I.S. will materialize around her body a moment after she connects the wires. Thus, I will effectively let her save the Library and CAL before I also collect her body.”

“But wouldn’t you see that? I mean, past you, weren’t you there?”

“Ah yes, you are a clever one aren’t you. You see, when she connected those wires, it let off a light so bright that I turned away.” He gives her a slight grin, but she looks unconvinced. “Wouldn’t past-you hear the T.A.R.D.I.S.?” 

The Doctor’s grin widens. “For once in my life, I am going to listen to my wife and take the breaks off.”  
  
“So, it won’t make that horrid noise?”

The Doctor pulls back in dismay. “Not you too, Clara. I like that noise,” he grumbles. He pulls one more lever and the T.A.R.D.I.S. shudders and silently dematerializes from the Library. They wait as it pulls them back in time.

* * * * *

_“River,” he pleads. She looks back up at him again. “You know my name. You whispered my name in my ear. There’s only one way I would ever tell anyone my name. There’s only one time I could…” She gives him a sad smile as she finishes preparing everything and the timer continues to count down._

_:03…_

_She looks at him lovingly. A million thoughts race through her mind but none of them are regretful. How else could she have died, but saving him._

_:02…_

_A tear falls down her cheek. He reaches for her again, the anguish apparent in his expression._

_:01…_

_She takes in his face one more time before pulling the two cord ends together and whispering, “Hush now. Spoilers.”_

_:00_

_Her body is thrown back from the force of the connection. A bright white light explodes in the room and he is forced to look away._

* * * * *

The timer hits zero and River’s body convulses with the shock of the connection. The room lights up with a blinding light and the Doctor shields his eyes, turning his head away from her.

At that exact moment, the T.A.R.D.I.S. appears and disappears, leaving no noise or trace that it was every there. The Doctor turns back and River’s body is gone. 

_The shock must have been too much,_ he thinks, _so much energy going through her body._ He stares at the empty chair in horror until Donna eventually finds him.

* * * * *

Clara stares at the woman that has materialized on the floor. She lays completely still, but no damage seems to have befallen her body.

The Doctor rushes past Clara. “My love,” he says in anguish. He falls to the floor by her, pulling her head into his lap as he checks her pulse. His eyebrows pull together as he mumbles, “dead,” to himself. He checks her whole body, looking for damage but the T.A.R.D.I.S. did her job. Her mind is gone, but her body is not damaged. 

Restoration of the mind will be possible. 

He sighs, placing his forehead on hers. “I’ve almost done it,” he whispers. He pulls away from her, then, hurriedly, goes back to the console to type in the coordinates of the future Library, where River’s mind is downloading. He looks up at Clara as she continues to stare at River’s lifeless body.

“It’s ok,” he says to her and smiles kindly. “She’ll be back. This will work.” Clara turns to him and tries to not let him see the doubt that’s clouding her mind. He senses it and looks away quickly. “You can stay on the T.A.R.D.I.S. for this part, Clara.” 

“I thought I was going to help?”

“There’s nothing you can do – I just need to carry her out the door and to the platform. I don’t need to worry about you too. I promise I’ll be back in a minute with a fully alive River.”

_Better to keep her out of harm’s way – I can’t protect them both,_ he thinks.

She nods silently. “But you can help by pulling this lever, while I go pick her up and stand by the door,” he says. Clara slowly smiles. “You mean I get to drive the T.A.R.D.I.S.?” 

“It’s a one-time thing,” he mutters to her as he points her to the right lever.

The Doctor then brushes past her and comes to stand above River’s body. He bends down to her and pulls her into his arms. He cradles her with a tenderness Clara has never seen him possess.

Carrying River to the door, he stops and looks at Clara expectantly. She takes a deep breath and pulls the lever. This time, the T.A.R.D.I.S. makes its usual sound and Clara’s eyes meet with the Doctor’s as he grins. “Couldn’t well let the wife know I listened to her, could I?”

Clara grins back at him as the T.A.R.D.I.S. lands and the Doctor turns his back to the console. His body stills and then he readjusts River in his arms and uses one foot to push open the door.


	4. “Don’t come any closer, do you hear?”

He runs. He runs with her again, sort of like old times. Except the old times didn’t include him holding her lifeless body in his arms – that seems to put a damper on things. 

He has no regard for the Vashta Nerada anymore. If they come, he will deal with them. He’s not afraid of them - only afraid of this plan not working, of his wife not coming back. 

His run to the platform is uneventful and he leans down to place her body on the platform. He scans the room quickly, and sees Clara pop her head out from the T.A.R.D.I.S. He gives her a thumbs up but she shakes her head in fright and points to the shadow that is slowly making its way towards him. He shoos her back into the T.A.R.D.I.S. and moves to the computer near the platform. 

The download has 95% complete on it as well as the message “Please Stand on the Platform” – a canned message, as he’s tricked the computer into thinking he’s uploading a body rather than reversing it and downloading a mind.  
  
He managed to get her body here just in time. Thankfully for once, the T.A.R.D.I.S. was on time. The T.A.R.D.I.S. hums across the room at him and he smiles. “Thanks, old girl,” he whispers, as the download ticks to 96%. 

All of the sudden, the hair on the back of his neck stands up. 

He turns slowly to see the shadow that was near the door, much closer now. Slowly, it creeps towards his position. Terror floods through him at the thought of it stopping him. He leaves River’s body on the platform to face the monster.

“Don’t come any closer, do you hear?” He growls.  
  
The shadow pauses for a moment before continuing. “Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? I promise you, if you come any nearer, you will not have a planet to live on when I’m through with you.” His eyes are hard and he stands up straighter. “I’m the Doctor. Don’t you remember? Or was it your ancestors that dealt with me before? I’ve outlived them all.”

The shadows pause and the Doctor sees a glimmer of hope. He wasn’t sure if talking to it would stop it but he had to try. He thought they would take longer to find him again, in fact, he was banking on it. It seems he was wrong. But he can talk, buy time, just enough to get his wife back.

“So you have heard of me, eh? Look me up if you haven’t, or go back into your species memories. You’ll find it would be a very big mistake to mess with me. You see, you are threatening not only me, but my wife.” He starts to advance on the shadow.  
  
To his knowledge, the Vashta Nerada have never encountered another Time Lord but him. Which means they don’t actually know if he is bluffing or not. He gathers his courage – and temper. 

“You can’t kill me,” he states boldly, “but I can kill you.” The shadows stand their ground for a moment. He stands right outside the largest shadow, daring it to come to him, attack eyebrows on the prowl. “And if you come near my wife, I will burn your planet to the ground.”

It’s the final straw. 

Too many unknowns prompt the Vashta Nerada to recede slowly. He is busy staring them down as they retreat when he hears a small beep. He turns around quickly to see “100%” on the download screen. It then flashes “Download Successful” before shutting off. 

He dashes to her body. “River?” he asks gently, rolling her head towards him. There is still no life in her face and she shakes her. “River Song, I demand you wake up.” Still nothing. He glances back at the shadows that skirt the perimeter of the room and decides there is nothing more for him here.  
  
He groans as he lifts her body into his arms. This new body is a little stiffer than the last, _bloody old joints_ , he thinks, _why couldn’t I look old but keep the youngness inside?_

He walks in a straight line towards the T.A.R.D.I.S., keeping his eyes on the door and not on the shadows. He will be damned if they sense his fear. As he approaches the door, he shifts to free a hand and snaps. The doors swing open and he strides into the doorway holding his wife to him. The door shuts behind him and the T.A.R.D.I.S. dematerializes from the room. 

The shadows swarm the place where the blue police box just stood.

* * * * *

"Doctor, just go get some rest."

Clara stared the Doctor down before he turned like a petulant child and strode out of the room. He had been sitting for hours waiting for River to wake up but still to no avail. Clara had gone to sleep and returned to find him in the exact same spot by River's side. His head was drooping though and she knew he needed some sleep. He couldn't stay awake forever.

His mind went through all the possibilities. Her vital signs were fine - he'd checked them every few minutes, but still she had not woken up. _Maybe it didn't work_ , he thought to himself as he ran his fingers through his gray hair. His eyebrows pulled together. _I was stupid to think it would_. He angrily strode down the hallways of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

He turned a corner and entered his - _their_ , bedroom and plopped down on the bed in dismay. 

He was out in a few seconds.

* * * * *

The Doctor opened his eyes.

"River, you're awake!" He exclaimed as he look at the face hovering above him. 

She was standing above him next to the bed. Her eyes glinted with anger at his obvious surprise. "Of course I am you daft idiot. You think I couldn't survive being left in a library for ages. And to think, you want me to thank you? For getting me out? No. You left me there. You left me to rot." Her quiet angry words stung and he pulled away.

And woke up.

* * * * *

The bedroom door was open and voices drifted lazily into his room. He sat up quickly. _No, it couldn't be_ \- he thought to himself. The T.A.R.D.I.S. hummed around him. He patted the wall as he got up. "Thanks, old girl, for opening up the door. You always know when I need to hear something." 

He strode out into the hallway and followed the voices. He knew it was her. Nothing could ever make him forget her voice. He approached the doorway to the room they had brought her body into and peeked in.

There she was, chatting away to Clara. She looked tired. But she was alive. She was wearing a plain dress with a robe pulled over it. The space suit was discarded in the corner. Obviously Clara had found River’s old closet.

Then, it hit him. _He had succeeded_. He made a small noise and all of the sudden; she looked up and locked gazes with him. Clara turned to see what River was staring at and smiled.  
  
Nothing more was said, she simply slipped past him and patted his shoulder. 

The Doctor stood frozen in the doorway, drinking in every detail. Her hair was just the way he remembered, her eyes, the familiar brightness - though dimmed by tiredness. He approached slowly and she stood from her chair. As he drew nearer, a sudden sorrow swept over him and he crumbled at her feet.

"I'm sorry."

The words slipped out of his mouth as he averted his gaze to the floor. She stood above him for a while. He didn’t blame her if she was angry. He didn’t blame her if she never wanted to speak to him again. He had left her - abandoned her. No amount of rescuing could fix how long she had waited, locked away and apart from him. 

But he couldn't help but hope for forgiveness. It had been so long since he had seen her and the thought of her going away - angry - was more than he could bear.

She crouched down in front of him and he held his breath as he lifted his head to meet her gaze.

She reached her hand out to cup his cheek as her lips formed a smile. Her eyes crinkled as the smile reached her eyes. She was silent but her expression was enough. Her eyes danced as he took her hand in his - large hands enveloping her small ones.

"I've missed you."


End file.
